Tom Kalinske: What did SEGA of America’s famous adman REALLY do for SEGA back in the 1990s?

Channel:

Creative Cat Productions

Subscribers:

1,950

Published on April 30, 2022 12:07:33 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YuMY1sQ9og

Game:

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

Duration: 34:37

2,114 views

103

Tom Kalinske has re-emerged in recent years thanks to the popularity of the book “Console Wars” by Blake J. Harris. Now SEGA of America’s former president and CEO has been popping up in virtually endless interviews and public appearances in order to tell his side of the story about how SEGA trounced the Nintendo juggernaut for a period of about three years from 1991 to 1994. But is that story really true? And is Tom Kalinske really responsible for SEGA’s success at the time?

In brief, we think yes, but we also think NO, because lost in the conversation are a litany of mistakes and oversights that not only didn’t help SEGA win the Console Wars, but ultimately led to the company’s meteoric collapse in the late 90s and early 2000s.

So what DID Tom Kalinske REALLY do for SEGA in the 1990s? And was ALL of it actually a good thing? Join us, Creative Cat Productions, on our latest adventure through the magical realm of historical revisions and twice told tales that is the Console Wars……

- CCP Management
____________________

There are a lot relevant sources that informed our perspective here, obviously none more important than Console Wars, which inspired this video….However, it is worth mentioning an incredible Interview that Tom Kalinske did with Mark McAvoy at Next Generation magazine around the launch of the 32X. In 2014 Defunct Games published a reenactment of that interview on their channel called “Tom Kalinske: The Sega 32X will outsell PlayStation and Saturn”. Briefly, this video demonstrates that Tom Kalinske not only defended the 32X, but stood behind the 32X as being what he saw as the most viable product being produced by SEGA going into the latter half of the 90s. His wrongness here is so profound that it reveals, perhaps, a man that was out of his element.

Here’s the link to that video:

https://youtu.be/ailjvz8rbQ0

Other Statistics